§ Mr. Lomasasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will give to the advisory committee set up under the terms of the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876 added responsibility to include (a) the task of having constantly under review the whole administration of the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876 and the adoption of non-animal techniques, and (b) the responsibility of seeking a continuing decrease in the number of animals used for experimental purposes, the prevention of duplication and repetition of experimental procedures and the prohibition of those categories of experiments where obvious suffering will be inflicted.
§ Dr. SummerskillNo. My right hon. Friend is not persuaded that the functions of the advisory committee, recently enlarged by the addition of four independent non-scientific members, should be added to in the ways suggested.
§ Mr. Lomasasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will now introduce legislation to amend the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876.
741W
§ Dr. SummerskillI have nothing to add to the answer which I gave to a Question by my hon. Friend on 11th November 1974.—[Vol. 881, c.24]
§ Mr. Lomasasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will propose an immediate and complete ban on all experiments on live animals which cannot be shown to have an obvious relevance to the treatment or prevention of disease, on the duplication or repetition of animal experimental procedures, on those animal experiments where obvious or prolonged suffering is likely to ensue and on the use of animals in experiments where alternative non-animal based techniques exist.
§ Dr. SummerskillNo. The Cruelty to Animals Act 1876 imposes restrictions on the experiments authorised under it and the licences issued for this purpose include conditions which impose further restrictions on the severity and duration of any pain involved. It would not be practicable or justifiable to extend these restrictions in the ways suggested.
§ Mr. Lomasasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will order a re-examination of the "pain clauses" presently attached to all licences under the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876.
§ Dr. SummerskillThe conditions regularly attached to licences are already under review.
§ Mr. Lomasasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will order a full-scale Government inquiry to consider both the moral and scientific justification for the continued use of animals for research purposes.
§ Dr. SummerskillNo. Two Royal Commissions have already considered the use of living animals in experiments generally.